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alias_sqbr) wrote2025-01-18 10:30 pm
alias_sqbr) wrote2025-01-18 10:30 pm
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My New Understanding of the Dragon Age Timeline
So I know I just posted about how I played a whole four hours of Veilguard (a non negligible amount of which was naturally spent tweaking my character's appearance), but I can't find anyone who's laid this out in text and after watching some youtube videos I want to try and understand it. Trust nothing I say here and if anyone has corrections or better links etc please share!
This post is going to completely spoil Veilguard and assume you've played enough dragon age to like... know what the Blight is etc.
My spelling and grammar are alll over the place, sorry, this took me all day to write as it is and I just Cannot Edit Any More.
You don't need to read/watch any of these to understand this post but here's the main videos and wiki pages I'm working from:
Summary of Veilguard plot:
Key moments in Harding's personal quest, involving the Titans:
Summary of new Lore with lots of cutscenes:
On the Executors and Those From Beyond The Sea
Especially useful wiki pages:
Elgar'nan In Elvhenan
Ghilan'nain
Titan
Timeline (does not include Veilguard info)
Elven Gods and Tevinter Gods
Great Dragon (does not include Veilguard info)
Ok, so.
The World
The Dragon Age games are set on the continent of Thedas, which seems to be metaphysically distinct from other places in its world.
North of Thedas is a large island called Par Vollen. This seems to be the only easy path from other continents to Thedas. Qunari and probably humans originally came to Thedas via Par Vollen.
At least in the modern day, when people from Thedas try to go anywhere beyond Thedas but Par Vollen by sea, their ships usually fail. There have been a few incidents of visitors from other continents coming to Thedas, but far enough in the past for records to be vague.
There is a mysterious group called "Those Across The Sea". Their nature is still ambiguous, but they seem to be some sort of quasi-lovecraftian being from another world/dimension who don't entirely understand or fit into this world. They eat magic but are repelled by dragon fire. During the modern era there seems to be something about Thedas that stops them being able to interact with it directly. Instead they send their agents, called Executors, and also send subtle influence via dreams, to what end is unclear but they seem to encourage the Blight (eg they encouraged Loghain, Bertrand, and Meredith in their actions) They refer to Thedas as a "rotten fruit they wait to have ripen". It's not entirely clear when they arrived on this world/dimension but it was definitely not long after recorded history begins.
Beyond Thedas on the wiki has more details which are interesting but not super relevant, except for the implication that dwarves exist overseas as well.
In the very beginning
Thedas was full of magic and spirits. Spirits tend tend to personify particular traits like wisdom, justice etc, formed from the dreams of physical beings. They cannot always easily interact with the physical world.
The physical world of Thedas was walked and shaped by the titans, giant creatures with lyrium veins as blood and (semi-?)sentient dwarves living inside them symbiotically as a sort of hivemind. The titans sang the stone into doing their bidding.
Dragons don't seem to show up in the history until later but there's nothing in the timelines etc about them arriving so I don't know if they're around yet. High and Great dragons are rare, and powerful in unique ways unlike any other creature. Some of this power can be accessed by consuming their blood but it changes you into something new.
Since spirits are formed from the dreams of people nearby, I wonder if the titans and dwarves (and maybe dragons) formed the spirits.
-7000+ Ancient
Some of these spirits, the Evanuris, became especially powerful. The leaders were Elgar'nan and Mythal. Mythal was also close with Solas (then known as Fen'Harel).
They figured out a way to gain physical bodies made of lyrium. Mythal persuaded Solas to make one too. The Evanuris... created the other elves somehow, I guess using lyrium and spirits? Or giving birth to children? These new elves were immortal, with a natural affinity for magic, but not as powerful as the Evanuris.
The titans took the use of their lyrium blood as an attack, and a war started. When the titans started winning, Mythal persuaded Solas to create a special lyrium knife which severed the Titans from their souls/dreams in the Fade, making them inert and Tranquil. This is why dwarves have no connection to the Fade and can't use magic or dream.
The Titans' severed dreams and songs of anger, fear, and confusion had great power, and formed the Blight. Solas bound it in a golden elven palace, which turned black.
The Evanuris other than Solas set themselves up as gods, with the other elves their loyal slaves. They each had a high dragon bound to them. They claimed to be protecting everyone from Those Across the Sea, but the exact nature of that threat is unclear.
Mythal was the most benevolent dictator but still a dictator, and built cities underground full of statues worshipping her in the remains of the Titans, until something made the elves afraid of the Titans (red lyrium?) and they abandoned the deep roads.
-4600 Ancient
Elves and dwarves made contact but mostly kept to the surface/underground respectively. The elves saw the dwarves as lacking souls.
-3000ish Ancient??
Solas tried to persuade the other Evanuris to behave better, then when that didn't work started a slave rebellion. He realised some of the Evanuris were using the Blight as a source of power, and becoming corrupted by it. He convinced Mythal that the Evanuris needed to be stopped. She confronted them and they killed her with Solas's knife.
Solas, furious, created the Veil, trapping the Evanuris within the same palace as the Blight. This "black city" formed the centre of the newly created Fade-as-a-distinct-place. The Veil is powered by the life force of the Evanuris.
Now the elves were no longer immortal or as connected to magic. Solas recovered a sliver of Mythal contained within the dagger, and hid it. Weakened, he slept for thousands of years. The dragons of the other Evanuris remained underground, slumbering.
A different fragment of Mythal escaped I think... into her dragon? She certainly seems very dragon-y. This is the one that becomes Flemeth.
The elves formed a new society, which still worshipped the Evanuris as gods, and saw Solas as the one who betrayed them.
Meanwhile dwarves had survived all this but stayed underground in the static remains of the titans, which became their cities and the deep roads. Myths of the Titans became distorted and in Orzamarr were erased when politically inconvenient, but their voices still sometimes connected with various dwarves over the years.
-3100 Ancient
Humans arrived in Thedas, probably via Par Vollen, but noone knows where from before that. They mostly ignored the dwarves and got along ok with the elves.
Later elven oral history says that this is when the elves lost their immortality, as a result of contact with the short lived humans. But it had already happened earlier.
-1195 Ancient
The human Tevinter Imperium formed in the north. The seven remaining elven gods, via their dragons, whispered to mages and set themselves up as the Old Gods of the Tevinter Imperium.
Using the power of dragons as taught to them by the Old Gods, the imperium grows in power and enslaves the elves.
The elves remember this as a time when the humans destroyed their great city, Arlathan, and had it be swallowed up by the ground. But I think that's just muddled memories of magic-locked places becoming inaccessible when the Veil was created.
-395 Ancient
The Old Gods persuaded a group of powerful human Tevinter mages/magisters to try and free them from their prison in the Fade. This failed, but released a sliver of the Blight into the world, creating the first darkspawn.
The first priority of the darkspawn is to taint the remaining dragons, which turns them into Archdemons. Darkspawn put most of their energy into digging underground, only coming above ground in large numbers when they have an Archdemon to strategise their attack. This puts them in constant violent conflict with the dwarves, whose population was vastly diminished once Blights started happening, sending them into a decline from which they never recovered.
The darkspawn eventually found and tainted the dragon Dumat, which became an Archdemon, creating the first Blight, which raged for two hundred years.
The Tevinter Imperium and the Old Gods started to lose their power and influence.
Eventually a coalition of humans, dwarves and elves formed the Grey Wardens and figured out how to partly infect themselves with the Taint to battle the Blight and defeat the Archdemon. I think that once an Archdemon is killed so is the associated Evanuris?
The Grey Wardens discover and trap Corypheus, one of the magisters who created the Blight. He has become a darkspawn and works to spread the Blight, but has retained his intelligence and personality. He can use his connection to the Blight to manipulate the minds of Grey Wardens and control darkspawn.
Anyone who is tainted can hear beautiful singing, which is probably the Titans and/or blighted and bound high dragons. But the Blight seems not to have much consciousness or understanding beyond an undirected need to spread itself and cause destruction. Not a huge fan of that as a metaphor for trauma due to a war crime but so it goes.
-180 Ancient
An uprising of elves is started by an elf, Shartan, who is plausibly influenced by Solas in some way.
At the same time an uprising of human and elven slaves is started by a human Tevinter slave, Andraste, who is plausibly Mythal in disguise or at least influenced by her. She was born the same year the Archdemon Dumat was slain.
EDIT: Compelling argument that Andraste was at least partly dwarf, and the Maker a Titan
Andraste says she is a prophet of a new god, the Maker, who created a golden city in the Fade that was tainted by the Tevinter Magisters. Which is to say, Solas = the Maker lolol.
Shartan and Andraste work together to create a better Thedas, including a free elven city in the Dales called Halamshiral. But then Andraste is killed, and Shartan killed trying to avenge her.
-1 Ancient = 1:01 Divine Age
The Chantry is created to worship the Maker. It's originally respectful of elves. But over time it goes from "mostly human" to "run by humans" and becomes oppressive towards the elves, especially those who insist on holding to their old religion and culture. There are increasingly bloody campaigns of colonisation and control.
500 years pass
Nothing interesting to say about the next few centuries, just a lot of further elf oppression and Chantry politics etc. A bunch of Blights happen, and as a result the Evanuris and their dragons are picked off one by one.
Over to the east, the qunari (then called "kossith") come into conflict with Those Across The Sea. They somehow use dragon blood to gain some ability to fight back against Those Across The Sea, but are still dying of disease.
At some point the Qun is written and the kossith all become qunari or are killed.
At some point a fragment of Mythal enters the human woman Flemeth, who sought help to avenge her husband. For the next few centuries she lives in the Kocari Wilds, passing her spirit and memories on to her adopted daughter as she gets old. She has the ability to turn into a dragon, and has been subtly influencing history, possessing humans and elves sympathetic to her. She is known to help elves a lot but can be dangerous.
At some point Solas wakes up and is horrified to see what has become of elves and their society.
The Steel Age (600 years after Ancient Era)
Queen Madrigal of Antiva is assassinated, some say by Those Across The Sea. But they are generally seen as a myth.
The Qunari escape to and settle Par Vollen, and then attempt to settle Thedas. Thus begins a bloody war that continues to the present day.
The Dragon Age (900 years after Ancient Era)
After being nearly hunted to extinction, High Dragons are seen again. The Great Dragons are planning to return.
Solas wakes up (for the first time?). The prison he created for the Blight and Evanuris is starting to fall apart, possibly because so many of the Evanuris are gone and their power was what kept the prison functioning.
He starts organising to create a new prison, and bring down the Veil, returning the world to one of magic and spirits, which will kill a lot of people and destroy the world as it currently exists but allow elves to become immortal again. Mythal finds out and disagrees, she thinks they should instead help the elves in the world as it is now.
Dragon Age Origins
Those Across the Sea subtly encourage Loghain to believe the Grey Wardens are lying about the Blight. His actions made it harder to stop the Blight, was that the goal?
Flemeth/Mythal plans to trap and un-taint the soul of the current Archdemon, Urthemiel, by having it born as a child to her current daughter, Morrigan. Still not sure what this was about.
Dragon Age 2
Those Across the Sea subtly encourage Meredith and Bartrand. Their actions spread red lyrium from an ancient pre-Blight building that seems more elven than dwarven, containing a red lyrium tainted knife in the shape of a woman.
Reminder of the details:
Primeval Thaig
Red Lyrium
So. This "thaig" seems to be a temple to Mythal. It became infected with red lyrium, a different sort of Blight, that does not make you sick and spread organic rot like the Taint, but instead makes you more powerful until you become a monster, and then turn to pure crystal. It wants to be consumed and spread as far as possible. Like more typical Blight, it sings to people.
Did Mythal create red lyrium, seeking more power the same way the other Evanuris did but in a more effective way, and hid this fact from Solas? Or is it a separate manifestation of the Titan's anger? Perhaps the reason the usual Blight is different is because it was influenced by the Evanuris and Solas's prison.
Or is red lyrium somehow a creation of Those Across the Sea, taking advantage of the situation with the Titans and the Blight?
Regardless: It existed before the Blight that escaped the Black City because of the Old Gods, but did not spread until now.
Dragon Age Inquisition
Corypheus controls a warden into forcing Hawke to help free him from his prison. He wants to become a god with the power of the Blight, since it turned out the Old Gods he worshipped were a lie.
Corypheus learns of red lyrium and uses it's power to increase his strength. He manipulates the Templars into taking red lyrium, which lets him control them, and he spreads red lyrium as much as possible. When killed he jumps into any nearby blighted creature (eg darkspawn, grey warden, or red templar) and turns them into him.
Corpheus is worshipped by a faction of Tevinter mages, the Venatori, who want to restore the old Tevinter Imperium.
Solas makes a deal with Corypheus to unlock a powerful orb. Solas thinks Corypheus will die in the explosion but instead a huge hole is ripped in the Veil, creating the Breach and giving the Inquisitor their powers.
Solas puts his larger plans on hold to save the world.
Those Across the Sea later claim to have encouraged some of this to happen, but also help the Inquisitor bring down Corypheus and close the Breach.
Solas goes back to his plan. He absorbs the power of the fragment of Mythal that was in Flemeth, though her memories go into Morrigan.
Dragon Age Veilguard
Solas's ongoing ritual, which uses the lyrium knife, is opening up the veil, causing spirits (which become demons) to appear, and old elven magical artefacts and places to start appearing and functioning again.
A failed attempt by Rook to stop Solas traps him in a magical prison (the one he made for the gods?) and releases the remaining two elven gods, Elgar'nan and Ghilan'nain. Also Varric, a dwarf, is stabbed and killed by the knife, though we don't find out he died until later since Rook keeps hallucinating him for the rest of the game.
When Harding, a dwarf, touches the knife, she has (blue) lyrium veins appear and gains Titan-related powers over stone and starts hearing them. In her personal quest, she ends up inside a mountain that is a Titan, it's lyrium veins red, not with Blight but with anger. She is confronted by an angry red shade of herself. A sliver of the Titans showed her the past, and this is the personification of the anger that she feels as a result. "The elves destroyed us and built a world on our bones, now all that is left is vengeance". The Inquisitor can get her to hold onto that anger and honour it, or calm it with compassion. She says "You took everything from but we are not gone. We're different and we will survive despite you".
The gods need power and followers, and recruit the Venatori (sure) and the Antaam, an offshoot of the... qunari?? The people who hate magic, gods and the blight? But no ELVES??? Sure.
The Inquisitor shows up and says the Blight is decimating southern Thedas (Ferelden, Orlais etc). Morrigan says she has Flemeth/Mythal's memories but remains her own person.
Solas says the only way to make the gods mortal is to kill their dragons.
It turns out his prison was powered by regret, and he traps Rook inside to be tormented by their regrets eg various no-win Bioware Choices made during the game, and the death of Varric which Rook now finds out happened right back at the start. Solas created fake!Varric to manipulate Rook. But then Rook realises he never did anything wrong ever and escapes. Sure.
In the final battle the player makes a bunch of choices and some or all companions die.
Solas helps defeat the gods, but of course this means the Veil's power source is gone and it comes down, which was his plan all along.
In the default ending, Rook tricks/forces Solas into becoming the new energy source for the veil. Ha, sucked in Solas.
In a secret ending, Rook has managed to track down the fragment of Mythal that had been trapped in the dagger. Mythal and the Inquisitor talk to Solas about how he needs to confront his regrets eg realise that stuff wasn't entirely his fault because that's how confronting your regrets works in this game. One of his motivations is to avenge Mythal's death, and she frees him from that obligation. Solas willingly lets himself become the new power of the veil, to be trapped within the Fade forever. A romanced Inquisitor can join him.
In the SUPER secret ending, Rook found three hidden disks with clues about the Executors, and hears a voice that is probably Those Across The Sea talk about all the ways they've been influencing the plot of all four games, and how they will be coming soon now that "the poisoned fruit is ripe".
It's implied they were waiting until all the Evanuris were destroyed or powerless. And I guess they wanted to spread red lyrium, or the Blight in general? Ahhh, and they worked to destroy all the people who could control the Blight. Maybe THEY want to be the ones with full control.
Random other thoughts
This was all very interesting but I still don't want to actually play veilguard based on what I saw in these videos. There was SOME exploration about how elves and dwarves felt about all these Big Revelations but everyone was so... nice and ~well adjusted about it in ways that felt boring and kind of gross. Let people be pissy and petty and not just directing their anger at conveniently neatly labelled Bad Guys!
In general, the subtext about oppressed people and their feelings across the whole series is Not Good. Not the worst possible, and well intentioned, with some interesting aspects. But still bad in ways I struggle to articulate rn but am going to chew on.
I am glad the Maker really is 100% not a real god though, and based on an elf. Specifically one who despises humans and the Chantry haha. Sucked innnn modern day anti-elf-racist Andrastians. Though the game gives you the chance to be like "Well I still believe in him anyway" suuure. EDIT: If the maker is a Titan and Andraste a dwarf it's just as good.
The people who think the Titan stuff is incompatible with the earlier games sound to me like they have just not been paying enough Obsessive Attention to Dwarf Lore. I knew it would pay off one day!!
EDIT: Forgot to say but while it seems like Those Across The Sea aren't a total retcon, they still seem pretty boring, and make everyone else they manipulated more boring by extension. Blah blah unknowable inhuman evil conspirators from overseas secretly behind every bad thing ever blah :/
This post is going to completely spoil Veilguard and assume you've played enough dragon age to like... know what the Blight is etc.
My spelling and grammar are alll over the place, sorry, this took me all day to write as it is and I just Cannot Edit Any More.
You don't need to read/watch any of these to understand this post but here's the main videos and wiki pages I'm working from:
Summary of Veilguard plot:
Key moments in Harding's personal quest, involving the Titans:
Summary of new Lore with lots of cutscenes:
On the Executors and Those From Beyond The Sea
Especially useful wiki pages:
Elgar'nan In Elvhenan
Ghilan'nain
Titan
Timeline (does not include Veilguard info)
Elven Gods and Tevinter Gods
Great Dragon (does not include Veilguard info)
Ok, so.
The World
The Dragon Age games are set on the continent of Thedas, which seems to be metaphysically distinct from other places in its world.
North of Thedas is a large island called Par Vollen. This seems to be the only easy path from other continents to Thedas. Qunari and probably humans originally came to Thedas via Par Vollen.
At least in the modern day, when people from Thedas try to go anywhere beyond Thedas but Par Vollen by sea, their ships usually fail. There have been a few incidents of visitors from other continents coming to Thedas, but far enough in the past for records to be vague.
There is a mysterious group called "Those Across The Sea". Their nature is still ambiguous, but they seem to be some sort of quasi-lovecraftian being from another world/dimension who don't entirely understand or fit into this world. They eat magic but are repelled by dragon fire. During the modern era there seems to be something about Thedas that stops them being able to interact with it directly. Instead they send their agents, called Executors, and also send subtle influence via dreams, to what end is unclear but they seem to encourage the Blight (eg they encouraged Loghain, Bertrand, and Meredith in their actions) They refer to Thedas as a "rotten fruit they wait to have ripen". It's not entirely clear when they arrived on this world/dimension but it was definitely not long after recorded history begins.
Beyond Thedas on the wiki has more details which are interesting but not super relevant, except for the implication that dwarves exist overseas as well.
In the very beginning
Thedas was full of magic and spirits. Spirits tend tend to personify particular traits like wisdom, justice etc, formed from the dreams of physical beings. They cannot always easily interact with the physical world.
The physical world of Thedas was walked and shaped by the titans, giant creatures with lyrium veins as blood and (semi-?)sentient dwarves living inside them symbiotically as a sort of hivemind. The titans sang the stone into doing their bidding.
Dragons don't seem to show up in the history until later but there's nothing in the timelines etc about them arriving so I don't know if they're around yet. High and Great dragons are rare, and powerful in unique ways unlike any other creature. Some of this power can be accessed by consuming their blood but it changes you into something new.
Since spirits are formed from the dreams of people nearby, I wonder if the titans and dwarves (and maybe dragons) formed the spirits.
-7000+ Ancient
Some of these spirits, the Evanuris, became especially powerful. The leaders were Elgar'nan and Mythal. Mythal was also close with Solas (then known as Fen'Harel).
They figured out a way to gain physical bodies made of lyrium. Mythal persuaded Solas to make one too. The Evanuris... created the other elves somehow, I guess using lyrium and spirits? Or giving birth to children? These new elves were immortal, with a natural affinity for magic, but not as powerful as the Evanuris.
The titans took the use of their lyrium blood as an attack, and a war started. When the titans started winning, Mythal persuaded Solas to create a special lyrium knife which severed the Titans from their souls/dreams in the Fade, making them inert and Tranquil. This is why dwarves have no connection to the Fade and can't use magic or dream.
The Titans' severed dreams and songs of anger, fear, and confusion had great power, and formed the Blight. Solas bound it in a golden elven palace, which turned black.
The Evanuris other than Solas set themselves up as gods, with the other elves their loyal slaves. They each had a high dragon bound to them. They claimed to be protecting everyone from Those Across the Sea, but the exact nature of that threat is unclear.
Mythal was the most benevolent dictator but still a dictator, and built cities underground full of statues worshipping her in the remains of the Titans, until something made the elves afraid of the Titans (red lyrium?) and they abandoned the deep roads.
-4600 Ancient
Elves and dwarves made contact but mostly kept to the surface/underground respectively. The elves saw the dwarves as lacking souls.
-3000ish Ancient??
Solas tried to persuade the other Evanuris to behave better, then when that didn't work started a slave rebellion. He realised some of the Evanuris were using the Blight as a source of power, and becoming corrupted by it. He convinced Mythal that the Evanuris needed to be stopped. She confronted them and they killed her with Solas's knife.
Solas, furious, created the Veil, trapping the Evanuris within the same palace as the Blight. This "black city" formed the centre of the newly created Fade-as-a-distinct-place. The Veil is powered by the life force of the Evanuris.
Now the elves were no longer immortal or as connected to magic. Solas recovered a sliver of Mythal contained within the dagger, and hid it. Weakened, he slept for thousands of years. The dragons of the other Evanuris remained underground, slumbering.
A different fragment of Mythal escaped I think... into her dragon? She certainly seems very dragon-y. This is the one that becomes Flemeth.
The elves formed a new society, which still worshipped the Evanuris as gods, and saw Solas as the one who betrayed them.
Meanwhile dwarves had survived all this but stayed underground in the static remains of the titans, which became their cities and the deep roads. Myths of the Titans became distorted and in Orzamarr were erased when politically inconvenient, but their voices still sometimes connected with various dwarves over the years.
-3100 Ancient
Humans arrived in Thedas, probably via Par Vollen, but noone knows where from before that. They mostly ignored the dwarves and got along ok with the elves.
Later elven oral history says that this is when the elves lost their immortality, as a result of contact with the short lived humans. But it had already happened earlier.
-1195 Ancient
The human Tevinter Imperium formed in the north. The seven remaining elven gods, via their dragons, whispered to mages and set themselves up as the Old Gods of the Tevinter Imperium.
Using the power of dragons as taught to them by the Old Gods, the imperium grows in power and enslaves the elves.
The elves remember this as a time when the humans destroyed their great city, Arlathan, and had it be swallowed up by the ground. But I think that's just muddled memories of magic-locked places becoming inaccessible when the Veil was created.
-395 Ancient
The Old Gods persuaded a group of powerful human Tevinter mages/magisters to try and free them from their prison in the Fade. This failed, but released a sliver of the Blight into the world, creating the first darkspawn.
The first priority of the darkspawn is to taint the remaining dragons, which turns them into Archdemons. Darkspawn put most of their energy into digging underground, only coming above ground in large numbers when they have an Archdemon to strategise their attack. This puts them in constant violent conflict with the dwarves, whose population was vastly diminished once Blights started happening, sending them into a decline from which they never recovered.
The darkspawn eventually found and tainted the dragon Dumat, which became an Archdemon, creating the first Blight, which raged for two hundred years.
The Tevinter Imperium and the Old Gods started to lose their power and influence.
Eventually a coalition of humans, dwarves and elves formed the Grey Wardens and figured out how to partly infect themselves with the Taint to battle the Blight and defeat the Archdemon. I think that once an Archdemon is killed so is the associated Evanuris?
The Grey Wardens discover and trap Corypheus, one of the magisters who created the Blight. He has become a darkspawn and works to spread the Blight, but has retained his intelligence and personality. He can use his connection to the Blight to manipulate the minds of Grey Wardens and control darkspawn.
Anyone who is tainted can hear beautiful singing, which is probably the Titans and/or blighted and bound high dragons. But the Blight seems not to have much consciousness or understanding beyond an undirected need to spread itself and cause destruction. Not a huge fan of that as a metaphor for trauma due to a war crime but so it goes.
-180 Ancient
An uprising of elves is started by an elf, Shartan, who is plausibly influenced by Solas in some way.
At the same time an uprising of human and elven slaves is started by a human Tevinter slave, Andraste, who is plausibly Mythal in disguise or at least influenced by her. She was born the same year the Archdemon Dumat was slain.
EDIT: Compelling argument that Andraste was at least partly dwarf, and the Maker a Titan
Andraste says she is a prophet of a new god, the Maker, who created a golden city in the Fade that was tainted by the Tevinter Magisters. Which is to say, Solas = the Maker lolol.
Shartan and Andraste work together to create a better Thedas, including a free elven city in the Dales called Halamshiral. But then Andraste is killed, and Shartan killed trying to avenge her.
-1 Ancient = 1:01 Divine Age
The Chantry is created to worship the Maker. It's originally respectful of elves. But over time it goes from "mostly human" to "run by humans" and becomes oppressive towards the elves, especially those who insist on holding to their old religion and culture. There are increasingly bloody campaigns of colonisation and control.
500 years pass
Nothing interesting to say about the next few centuries, just a lot of further elf oppression and Chantry politics etc. A bunch of Blights happen, and as a result the Evanuris and their dragons are picked off one by one.
Over to the east, the qunari (then called "kossith") come into conflict with Those Across The Sea. They somehow use dragon blood to gain some ability to fight back against Those Across The Sea, but are still dying of disease.
At some point the Qun is written and the kossith all become qunari or are killed.
At some point a fragment of Mythal enters the human woman Flemeth, who sought help to avenge her husband. For the next few centuries she lives in the Kocari Wilds, passing her spirit and memories on to her adopted daughter as she gets old. She has the ability to turn into a dragon, and has been subtly influencing history, possessing humans and elves sympathetic to her. She is known to help elves a lot but can be dangerous.
At some point Solas wakes up and is horrified to see what has become of elves and their society.
The Steel Age (600 years after Ancient Era)
Queen Madrigal of Antiva is assassinated, some say by Those Across The Sea. But they are generally seen as a myth.
The Qunari escape to and settle Par Vollen, and then attempt to settle Thedas. Thus begins a bloody war that continues to the present day.
The Dragon Age (900 years after Ancient Era)
After being nearly hunted to extinction, High Dragons are seen again. The Great Dragons are planning to return.
Solas wakes up (for the first time?). The prison he created for the Blight and Evanuris is starting to fall apart, possibly because so many of the Evanuris are gone and their power was what kept the prison functioning.
He starts organising to create a new prison, and bring down the Veil, returning the world to one of magic and spirits, which will kill a lot of people and destroy the world as it currently exists but allow elves to become immortal again. Mythal finds out and disagrees, she thinks they should instead help the elves in the world as it is now.
Dragon Age Origins
Those Across the Sea subtly encourage Loghain to believe the Grey Wardens are lying about the Blight. His actions made it harder to stop the Blight, was that the goal?
Flemeth/Mythal plans to trap and un-taint the soul of the current Archdemon, Urthemiel, by having it born as a child to her current daughter, Morrigan. Still not sure what this was about.
Dragon Age 2
Those Across the Sea subtly encourage Meredith and Bartrand. Their actions spread red lyrium from an ancient pre-Blight building that seems more elven than dwarven, containing a red lyrium tainted knife in the shape of a woman.
Reminder of the details:
Primeval Thaig
Red Lyrium
So. This "thaig" seems to be a temple to Mythal. It became infected with red lyrium, a different sort of Blight, that does not make you sick and spread organic rot like the Taint, but instead makes you more powerful until you become a monster, and then turn to pure crystal. It wants to be consumed and spread as far as possible. Like more typical Blight, it sings to people.
Did Mythal create red lyrium, seeking more power the same way the other Evanuris did but in a more effective way, and hid this fact from Solas? Or is it a separate manifestation of the Titan's anger? Perhaps the reason the usual Blight is different is because it was influenced by the Evanuris and Solas's prison.
Or is red lyrium somehow a creation of Those Across the Sea, taking advantage of the situation with the Titans and the Blight?
Regardless: It existed before the Blight that escaped the Black City because of the Old Gods, but did not spread until now.
Dragon Age Inquisition
Corypheus controls a warden into forcing Hawke to help free him from his prison. He wants to become a god with the power of the Blight, since it turned out the Old Gods he worshipped were a lie.
Corypheus learns of red lyrium and uses it's power to increase his strength. He manipulates the Templars into taking red lyrium, which lets him control them, and he spreads red lyrium as much as possible. When killed he jumps into any nearby blighted creature (eg darkspawn, grey warden, or red templar) and turns them into him.
Corpheus is worshipped by a faction of Tevinter mages, the Venatori, who want to restore the old Tevinter Imperium.
Solas makes a deal with Corypheus to unlock a powerful orb. Solas thinks Corypheus will die in the explosion but instead a huge hole is ripped in the Veil, creating the Breach and giving the Inquisitor their powers.
Solas puts his larger plans on hold to save the world.
Those Across the Sea later claim to have encouraged some of this to happen, but also help the Inquisitor bring down Corypheus and close the Breach.
Solas goes back to his plan. He absorbs the power of the fragment of Mythal that was in Flemeth, though her memories go into Morrigan.
Dragon Age Veilguard
Solas's ongoing ritual, which uses the lyrium knife, is opening up the veil, causing spirits (which become demons) to appear, and old elven magical artefacts and places to start appearing and functioning again.
A failed attempt by Rook to stop Solas traps him in a magical prison (the one he made for the gods?) and releases the remaining two elven gods, Elgar'nan and Ghilan'nain. Also Varric, a dwarf, is stabbed and killed by the knife, though we don't find out he died until later since Rook keeps hallucinating him for the rest of the game.
When Harding, a dwarf, touches the knife, she has (blue) lyrium veins appear and gains Titan-related powers over stone and starts hearing them. In her personal quest, she ends up inside a mountain that is a Titan, it's lyrium veins red, not with Blight but with anger. She is confronted by an angry red shade of herself. A sliver of the Titans showed her the past, and this is the personification of the anger that she feels as a result. "The elves destroyed us and built a world on our bones, now all that is left is vengeance". The Inquisitor can get her to hold onto that anger and honour it, or calm it with compassion. She says "You took everything from but we are not gone. We're different and we will survive despite you".
The gods need power and followers, and recruit the Venatori (sure) and the Antaam, an offshoot of the... qunari?? The people who hate magic, gods and the blight? But no ELVES??? Sure.
The Inquisitor shows up and says the Blight is decimating southern Thedas (Ferelden, Orlais etc). Morrigan says she has Flemeth/Mythal's memories but remains her own person.
Solas says the only way to make the gods mortal is to kill their dragons.
It turns out his prison was powered by regret, and he traps Rook inside to be tormented by their regrets eg various no-win Bioware Choices made during the game, and the death of Varric which Rook now finds out happened right back at the start. Solas created fake!Varric to manipulate Rook. But then Rook realises he never did anything wrong ever and escapes. Sure.
In the final battle the player makes a bunch of choices and some or all companions die.
Solas helps defeat the gods, but of course this means the Veil's power source is gone and it comes down, which was his plan all along.
In the default ending, Rook tricks/forces Solas into becoming the new energy source for the veil. Ha, sucked in Solas.
In a secret ending, Rook has managed to track down the fragment of Mythal that had been trapped in the dagger. Mythal and the Inquisitor talk to Solas about how he needs to confront his regrets eg realise that stuff wasn't entirely his fault because that's how confronting your regrets works in this game. One of his motivations is to avenge Mythal's death, and she frees him from that obligation. Solas willingly lets himself become the new power of the veil, to be trapped within the Fade forever. A romanced Inquisitor can join him.
In the SUPER secret ending, Rook found three hidden disks with clues about the Executors, and hears a voice that is probably Those Across The Sea talk about all the ways they've been influencing the plot of all four games, and how they will be coming soon now that "the poisoned fruit is ripe".
It's implied they were waiting until all the Evanuris were destroyed or powerless. And I guess they wanted to spread red lyrium, or the Blight in general? Ahhh, and they worked to destroy all the people who could control the Blight. Maybe THEY want to be the ones with full control.
Random other thoughts
This was all very interesting but I still don't want to actually play veilguard based on what I saw in these videos. There was SOME exploration about how elves and dwarves felt about all these Big Revelations but everyone was so... nice and ~well adjusted about it in ways that felt boring and kind of gross. Let people be pissy and petty and not just directing their anger at conveniently neatly labelled Bad Guys!
In general, the subtext about oppressed people and their feelings across the whole series is Not Good. Not the worst possible, and well intentioned, with some interesting aspects. But still bad in ways I struggle to articulate rn but am going to chew on.
I am glad the Maker really is 100% not a real god though, and based on an elf. Specifically one who despises humans and the Chantry haha. Sucked innnn modern day anti-elf-racist Andrastians. Though the game gives you the chance to be like "Well I still believe in him anyway" suuure. EDIT: If the maker is a Titan and Andraste a dwarf it's just as good.
The people who think the Titan stuff is incompatible with the earlier games sound to me like they have just not been paying enough Obsessive Attention to Dwarf Lore. I knew it would pay off one day!!
EDIT: Forgot to say but while it seems like Those Across The Sea aren't a total retcon, they still seem pretty boring, and make everyone else they manipulated more boring by extension. Blah blah unknowable inhuman evil conspirators from overseas secretly behind every bad thing ever blah :/
no subject
Solas puts his larger plans on hold to save the world.
Poor Solas! sidequests
and the death of Varric which Rook now finds out happened right back at the start. Solas created fake!Varric to manipulate Rook.
wait sorry what?????? I think this is the biggest surprise to me -- also feels sad, because I guess Rook wouldn't know Varric well enough to care. It's a very meta twist in that it only works in the context of knowing that this is Varric's third game and also possibly having an attachment to him.
Curious how the fandom took that, because I know that some people really love Varric and some people thought he's been appearing too much.
Don't know how I feel about the "but there was an enemy all along!" -- it feels a bit like a cheap trick, though I do like the villains' ecological fruit metaphor (though.. "rotten fruit they wait to have ripen", why do they expect the fruit to ripen?? it's rotten!!". Also I feel like this kind of Secret Manipulative Group With a Cryptic Name is necessarily lacking in depth, because no one can explain why any large organization would be so interested in manipulating things for thousands of years and being so patient about the relative lack of results and apparently not having any infighting or promo drama...
(I wonder what they call themselves. Surely, to them, Thedas are the ones beyond the sea? xD)
no subject
The Varric fan I know was not super happy about how things played out afaict.
I forgot to say but yes I also am not sure I'm into the Secret Villain aspect, especially since everything about them sounds so much less interesting than the varied existing villains they were apparently manipulating.